Liquor Bottle c. 1936

Nicholas Amantea made this drawing of a Liquor Bottle without specifying the date, using some kind of brown crayon or perhaps charcoal on paper. It seems like he was interested in a specific kind of light, maybe coming from a window. I like how he’s trying to nail the volume of the thing, like he’s turning the bottle around in his mind. It makes me think of Giorgio Morandi, with his bottles, and his feeling for tone and shape. I wonder if Amantea was thinking about this bottle as something empty or full? I mean, what’s the difference? How can he capture the essence of the thing itself? Does it even matter? When he’s making this drawing he's entering into a dialogue with all the other artists who have tried to make sense of the world, one object at a time.